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Room Descriptions
ainokeii
Member Posts: 25
This is a minor suggestion, but one that I think would contribute to the spirit of the game (as I understand it).
One of the things I miss about text games is the feeling that the world I'm in has a history behind it, some character to make it unique. One of the biggest parts of this was the descriptions of each room, carefully crafted to make that little box different from all the thousands of other little boxes. I think this could be accomplished by having zone descriptions like we once had room descriptions. They wouldn't be as frequent as room descriptions, of course, but each zone, and each area within that zone, and especially instanced dungeons, could have a box with some flavor text; maybe a little background, or significant events in history that occurred around there (the way we have those little black signs in historic areas in real life), something like that.
It'd be another chance for the HJ world builders to flex their creative muscle, and another way to let those of us who've been searching for a good RP MMO know we've come to the right place.
Comments
That phrase is generally used with regard to memories or retellings of past events, not MMOs.
Both would be best, I think, because pictures alone cannot convey the history or the character of the area, and text alone cannot give you the pure aesthetic glee of some great visuals. If this were accessible from the map screen, say you mouse over a zone or sub zone to read its description, I think it would be sufficiently out of the way that anyone who really wants to avoid it can do so. It's unobtrusive, and it shows that extra effort that Simu likes to put into the worlds it creates.
To be honest, the phrase is used the way kuzzled suggested. Most people will look at pictures and make their descision based on looks before actually reading. Reason why Sex sells in society today. Theres only a few people who actually read over choosing based on the looks.
I am all for zone descriptions.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
I can't wait to be standing in an empty room and be told I'm standing in an empty room with noone but me in it.
This is a horrible idea, just horrible.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
Zone descriptions, as I think is perfectly clear in the original post, are nothing like MUD room descriptions. They are merely inspired by them. A zone description wouldn't give you anything so mundane as what the place LOOKS like; you can (one would think) get a pretty good grasp on that by yourself. It would instead give you some background, that is, the role that this place has in the overall setting. For instance:
"[This zone] is the site of a former trade hub. Though the area was once teeming with caravans and other passers-by, the Sundering has left no trace of its former glory. Rumor has it that evem [Famous Hero] herself once operated a modest trading post just outside the former city limits, before her destiny led her to greater ventures. Now all that is left is a lingering air of tragedy and decay, as if the very air itself has been soiled."
My writing may or may not come across as stilted and hackneyed, but you get the idea. Nowhere in there does it say "There are trees here. Trees with brown leaves." It's the character of the site that's being given to you, because graphics alone can't give you that.
Also, no one is two words.